


Snowbody Like You

by shewandered_shewrote



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-06 02:31:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11591094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shewandered_shewrote/pseuds/shewandered_shewrote
Summary: Lily was sure everyone gathered at the Christmas party today was here to witness her humiliation and premature demise. Afterwards, they would take her to her long-term boyfriend - the Giant Squid - and she'd spend her days floating in the Lake, wondering why she was such an idiot.With her green eyes and red hair, her cheerful spirit and joyful nature, she was the embodiment of Christmas, so why is Lily Evans not in the spirit this Year, but rather waging war in her own head? And why is Potter, again, the root of all her problems?





	Snowbody Like You

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! I hope you enjoy reading this!
> 
> *A massive shoutout to my wonderful and amazing beta Mary!!! You are a gift to this world and I couldn't have found a better beta for my work! Love you, and thank you!!* :)
> 
> Enjoy all!

When he was 5, James received his very own pet fawn for Christmas. It was a lavish gift, agreed, but didn’t little Jamie love the deer he saw in the forest near Inverness this summer? And what wouldn’t Mr. and Mrs. Potter do to see their baby boy’s face light up again. Hence, the fawn. Or, Ginger, as he’d been named by James. It certainly wasn’t the most opulent Christmas gift James Potter received over the years. Oh no. Between the latest high-speed, swerve-safe, mahogany broomstick at age 10, to a finely woven Italian wool 3-piece self-cleansing suit at age 19, James Potter certainly had had his fair share of extravagant gifts. But his best Christmas gift you ask? Ginger - the fawn. At least until the last Christmas at Hogwarts. Because you see, nothing could have prepared the Marauders’ master-planner for his 7th Year Christmas gift.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

\- 9:10 p.m. -

(Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin’)

It’s become her mantra, Breathe in. Breathe out. In. And out. Okay. In. Out. It’s raining today, pouring really, so it seems like mother earth is shedding its tears upon her impending death; her impending failure and embarrassment and disappointment. The winds have chilled, not because it’s December, no, but because it too can sense her impending heartbreak today and is trying to match the situation. The common room seems to have way too many people because apparently they too want to witness her impending humiliation - they’re definitely not here because it’s the Marauders’ Christmas Party tonight - their last one at Hogwarts; they just await the drama. She shakes her head and smooths nonexistent wrinkles of her dress. Potter - no, James - thought that since they were finishing Hogwarts, they should all just spend the last Christmas here - not everyone stayed, but Lily did. She wondered why she did though because she didn’t really know any of his friends except Remus and Mary; everyone else staying back was just an acquaintance. She knows deep down that if his friends are anything like James himself, then she would get along with them just fine, yet heaven knows why her thoughts have decided to drown themselves in the sea of despair. But Potter - James! - has been super excited about this for a whole month now and she can’t imagine to let him down. Funny. She calls him James now; she wouldn’t have thought back at this time of the year last year that she’d ever be on first name basis with him. Yet here they are: James, and Lily - friends. 

She has to admit, the venue looks gorgeous. From string lights hanging from the ceiling in rows, to intricate flower and holly arrangements on the table with snacks, to the faux snow gently falling from the ceiling, and the jingle-bell music, everything looked so - stunning. She loves Christmas. The spirit, the excitement, presents, joy… She simply loves Christmas. But standing here now, at the back, she feels so lost that she stands rooted to the same spot for what seems like ages. She’s tried looking for James or Remus or Mary, or even Alexa who was always nice to her but she couldn’t see them anywhere near! Torn between scanning and walking through the crowd openly for a familiar face and trying to keep her head low so as to avoid any unnecessary attention, she blindly takes a step forward, not knowing what she was about to do. 

“Lily!” boomed a voice from her right. Lily spun around and came face to face with none other than her two room mates, her best friends, both of whom had left in the morning to go home.

“Marlene! Janelle!” seeing their familiar faces and big smiles Lily couldn’t help but feel happiness bubble inside her as she hurried forward and embraced them both. “What on earth are you two doing here? I thought you went back!”

“We did,” replied Janelle, “but we decided not to and jumped off the train before it started and walked all the way back!”

“Enough of all this here, let’s head up for a minute so we can change, and then come back?” Marlene quipped, and started moving towards the staircase at the nods of the other two girls.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Calm down! So that’s why you stayed behind! I wondered why you of all people did. It’s alright if you like him Lily,” smirked a certain Marlene McKinnon from her bed, “just... go tell him.”

A loud snort sounded across dormitory 11.

“Right, go tell him what?”, glared a certain red-head, “‘Hi James. Everyone, including the bloody Queen of England, must’ve heard that I think you are an arrogant toe-rag and I’d rather date the squid than you, and I may also have insulted you a billion times -”

“Lils, that isn’t what-”

“’-but now I realize that you’re actually quite caring and nice, so Merlin help me, I like you! Let’s put all the shit I said behind us and just fuse our mouths together, okay?!’”

“Sounds great to me.” quipped Janelle from behind Lily, trying to contain her laughter.

“It is not okay!”, Lily practically yelled. “I can’t just... just humiliate him for years and then now, when he finally isn’t asking me out incessantly, go up to him and ask him out!”

“Why not?” the two other girls implored.

“Because it’s humiliating, for him. And me.” Lily admitted. At the raised eyebrows of her friends, she continued: “He’s got this self-esteem, as everyone does; he can’t go out with me now because what kind of person goes out with someone who routinely insulted them? And then he’s going to say no, and I’m going to be so humiliated! Can you believe it? He’ll say no to me - because I deserve it - but it’ll still sting and I - Goodness Heavens.”

The room was quiet for a minute, before Janelle softly spoke: “No, we can’t believe you Lils. You’re right, James has a self-esteem, a high one at that, but he genuinely likes you. And I’m sure he’d see how you had to overcome your pride to go ask him out - not wait for him. So, no, I don’t believe he’d say no. I think he’d say ‘yes’”  
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

\- 10:06 p.m. – 

(In the lane, snow is glistening)

In the mere 16 years of his existence, James had concluded 2 things:

1) Lily Evans had not liked him the way he liked her, in an understated manner of speaking. So interacting with her beyond classwork was definitely no good news (he deduced this after their 4th year when him and the boys sent howlers to the girls of Dormitory 4 on valentine’s day at breakfast, which embarrassed them all thoroughly and led to Lily switching his shampoo contents with color changing dye and he had to walk around for a whole bloody week with yellow and green and blue and whatever shit color his hair decided to be that hour).

2) He liked her in a much different way than Lily Evans liked him, in an understated manner of speaking. So even if she rejected him romantically, he was content just being friends with her because he liked her - her personality, her smile, her kindness, her sharpness... Being friends would also be enough, just as long as she was happy and satisfied. 

But now that they were friends - sort of - this year, and while it shouldn’t give him any false hope, he couldn’t help but just hope that maybe, just maybe she felt something more. She agreed to stay for Christmas this year and he was over the moon about it was his last chance to see her in her bright Christmas jumpers and hear her softly sing muggle songs about ‘jingle bells’ and ‘last Christmas’ and, his favorite one - the one she sang in potions 2 years ago when he was sitting behind her - ‘winter wonderland’, under her breath. He loved her, without any doubt. And now that he noticed her staring at him sometimes, caught her smiling softly at him, noticed her not being agitated around him always, he hoped maybe she... maybe he should tell her. Once and for all. Last time. Because then they would go down different paths - him an Auror, her a Healer; living on opposite ends of Britain, fighting this war, then maybe settling down afterwards, marrying someone and having cute babies who grow up and meet at Hogwarts. Maybe he’d see her some years down the lane and think of all that might have been, but then they’d grasp their respective spouses/lovers’ hand and smile politely and “Alright, Evans?”, “Great, you Potter?”. The end.  But this wistfulness, this ‘what if’ filled life wouldn’t work; he supposed he should tell her, Sirius thought so. But where was she? He couldn’t tell if she wasn’t here. He’d been looking for her for a while now, to no avail. He’d seen her at the start of the party, in her green dress that showed off just a hint of her shoulders and made her eyes seem brighter - that and her red hair: she was the embodiment of Christmas itself.  
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

\- 10:25 p.m. - 

“Lily! Hey! Wonderful to see you Red,” says an obviously excited voice. She turns to her right to find herself face-to-face with Sirius Black, looking as effortlessly cool as ever. 

“Uh, yeah. Hi, I’m Lily” she replied a little dazedly.

“Yeah I know, obviously. I mean, you have been here with us for the last 7 years, haven’t you? Or are you someone else? Am I that drunk already?” Sirius joked. She immediately sensed that he’s trying to diffuse her nervousness and hugely appreciates his humor.

“Are you ever sober?” Lily threw back, earning a bark of laughter from Sirius. Before he could reply, however, Lily figured it was best to ask him for he probably knew Potters entire schedule down to the last second: “Um, do you - do you know where James might be? I’ve been trying to see him but… He asked me to be here today, I - he thought it’d be nice to see everyone before we graduate?” she finished sheepishly.

“You asking me or telling me?” And that damn smirk of his made its way back onto Sirius’ face

“Asking you, telling you what?” says a new voice, a female one. “Oh. Hi Lily!” Emma stopped beside Sirius; she had a nice, warm voice and Lily feels it’s probably best to shake her hand as she replied a hello back. 

“She was asking me if I knew why James invited her today.” states Sirius, looking at Emma.

“Hmm, well he may have mentioned it once.” drawled Emma.

“Or twice.”

“Every day.”

“Every two hours” Sirius breathes out before they all dissolve into a fit of giggles. 

Lily can feel the color rising on her cheeks and she’s pretty sure her ears have turned bright red. There’s beads of perspiration forming on the back of her neck and her hands seem to have a mind of their own as they continue to fidget uncontrollably. Her stomach seems to churn at such a fast speed that she thinks she’ll end up puking all over her chiffon dress. She tries to ask one of them if they’ve seen James but her mouth is as dry as dust and the music, the laughter, the chatter has all fused into one gigantic mess of white noise. Before she can utter a single word, however, a smooth, deep voice cuts through all the noise. 

(A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight)

“I see you’re mingling with these troublemakers of all the people here, not a great start Lily.” He’s teasing her but he sounds rather breathless too. Se can feel all her anxiety vanish into thin air the moment his melodious, rich, deep voice reach her ears. She turns around and everything, everyone, except him turns blurry. He’s smiling and wearing a sharp dark red shirt and she can feel the corners of her mouth lift up at the sight of him. She replies in an equally breathless voice: “Hey.” She hasn’t seen him in two hours and the reality of just how much she’s missed him hits her like a freight carrier. All she wants to do is jump into his arms, run her hands through his hair and claim his lips. She wants to feel his muscles underneath her fingertips and feel his breath on her skin and look into those deep brown eyes that she thinks she can get lost in for decades. She wants to know the comfort of his embrace and the peaceful sounds of his heartbeat. Its been two hours and it scares her how much she wants him at this moment. It’s not even sexual. It’s this other feeling. It’s this feeling of euphoria, like she’s floating and the only thing keeping her tied to the Earth is him. James. She has this jittery feeling in her belly, her palms sweaty and a flutter of electricity runs through her body when he takes hold of her soft hand in his calloused ones and entwines their fingers as he leans in to graze her cheek with his lips. She’s had weeks to think about this infatuation and she knows it’s not an obsession - it’s another emotion that she doesn’t want to admit to him because admitting it would take them and their relationship to a whole new level - and it would prove how stupid and stubborn she has been since 5th Year. 

But that’s the thing. She still can’t bring herself to admit it to him. She can see it in his eyes, he feels the same but he just won’t say anything. It’s like he’s waiting for the grass to grow; he’s waiting for her to admit it first - and then maybe he’d tell her ‘no’ because she broke his heart so many times its a miracle he’s still alive and his heart is still capable of pumping that crimson liquid. 

It scares her because never before has she ever felt so strongly about any other guy. And if James ever pulled back, then Lily is pretty sure she will die, her eyes will shed tears of blood and she will choke on her own emotions and be unable to breathe and just die. But sitting here, at this party and trying to chew a mouthful of this pie that is a bit too undercooked and under seasoned for her taste, she knows she has to tell him how she feels. Because either way, she is going to choke up on her emotions and die. So why not confess her feelings to him and stare at his beautiful face while dying? Because what a way to die!

And she decides that come hell or high water, she will tell him she loves him by the end of the night.

Shit.  
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

\- 11:00 p.m – 

(Walking in a winter wonderland)

“Hey, would you kindly grant me this dance, Ms. Evans?” whispers his deep voice in her ear. She smirks a little as puts her hand in his outstretched one and lets him lead them to the dance floor. The song ends and as the applause of the audience dies down, the next song begins. The lights have dimmed down and she’s sure most of the students are hammered. James places a hand on her lower back and pulls Lily in, her hand on his shoulder, their free hands finally meeting and locked in each others. She tries her best to ignore all the stares that the pair are attracting. Together, they sway to the beat of the music as the snow falls around them, its slight coldness a sharp contrast against their flaming cheeks. The snow and the music and the whole atmosphere really, is just magical, wonderful.

It’s unbelievable how in sync the two are. As the song continues, she feels his hand rubbing small circles on her lower back in an act to comfort her nerves.  She doesn’t know how he knows but he does. James always does know. So she begins to relax. Her fears start to evaporate again and once more, only the two of them seem to exist - the rest of the world forgotten. She notices that his pocket square is a certain green colour - the exact hue of her dress. She smiles and looks into his eyes. James is still staring at her and has this giddy, almost dorky smile on his face.  He keeps his eyes locked in on Lily’s and somehow still manages to maneuver them gracefully across the dance floor. Every moment, every angle seemed to be planned in advanced.

Nothing felt forced; Lily literally thought she was floating.

“James,” she whispers gently, “there are a lot of people staring at us. A lot.”

He lets out a laugh and gently, but firmly, squeezes her hand and says “Really? I haven’t noticed it.”

And that is all she needs to boost her confidence. She knows that there won’t be a better moment and in reality, she doesn’t care. It’s Christmas, it’s a time for giving, for letting yourself be free and happy. She just moves the hand that’s on his shoulder and reaches up to tangle her fingers in his hair at the back of his neck. She presses their foreheads together and takes in a deep breath.

“I like you, James. I’m sorry, I thought I’d make a better speech but I can’t. It’s choking me now and I feel awful because I’m an awful person and you aren’t as awful but - I - I don’t even know how to breathe without you at this point. I just, you’re nice, and I was wrong and that bloody idea is not something I can easily digest, okay? God! I love you!” 

There’s this silence. He’s looking at her still and his face is expressionless before he shuts his eyes and says, “What do you mean ‘not as awful?”

She only stares at him.

“For the record Lily, I love you too okay? If you hadn’t already figured it out by now which I’m sure you did” he smiles.

And with that, she let go of her fears and doubts. The fear, nervousness, hurt all fades away as the feeling of love and joy fills her up. All that matters to her now is that he loves her and she loves him and she’s wearing a green dress and has her hair pulled back by a silver clip like a tiara and he’s basically prince charming and they are dancing in a ball-like party and and and. She was falling; she was falling hard for him and he caught her. He caught her and now they both are falling together, god knows where. But in this moment, she knows they are it. James already knew they were it, he believed in them. Now she does too. And wherever this journey may lead her, she will happily go.

Right now, she isn’t an overachiever, Head Girl, Lily Evans. She is just Lily and he is just James. So when he leans in to capture her lips, she arches up a bit to meet him halfway. He tastes like butterbeer and Christmas pudding. And he’s actually kissing her, it’s not a little peck. Oh no. Its a proper kiss. Its an even split of teeth and tongue and oh my! Her heart is thumping wildly and she can hear the rush of blood in her veins and she is sure James’ breathing has just gone up a notch. She’s doesn’t know how to swim but this is one kiss she’ll happily drown in forever. And he knows that because he too will drown in here. And right now, in this moment, having Lily in his arms, their lips against each other and knowing she loves him too, James thinks this ‘Ginger’ may have replaced his pet Ginger as the best gift ever. They are both vaguely aware of some wolf whistles and a few claps and a lot of stares because, holy shit, everyone’s been betting on these two for ages - but the two are just in a state of free-fall and so neither bothers to acknowledge the outside world - choosing to just happily live in the moment, knowing this Christmas was the beginning of a brand new chapter in their lives.  
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please don't forget to comment and like this! Tell me what you thought about this, I love hearing from my readers :)  
> I know their situation isn't exactly based on the lyrics - I used the lyrics in a more figurative sense than literal sense. It's a pretty song and I didn't want to overdo the fluff by having them literally walk through a 'winter wonderland' and say 'I love you', I feel that's been done wayyy too many times. 
> 
> Have a nice day!


End file.
